Tag: microsoft

You don’t need to be an expert in technology, business or government to see our society is changing. Every new advancement brings both fresh opportunities and unforeseen risks. However, the real question is how we can best prepare for and understand the potential impacts of these changes. These are some of the topics that award-winning…

Local governments have access to vast troves of data about their resources, citizens and services. But all that data has a tendency to stay in nice little silos, never joining up to a bigger picture. Smart local government offices like Norfolk County Council know that before they can transform their services, engage citizens or accelerate economic…

Earlier this year, Cabinet Office mandated that all government documents be created in “open document format” file types, commonly known as ODF. Moving to comply with the ODF mandate is going be an issue that offices big and small have to face. But the good news is that you probably already have access to the software…

Cities are our economic hubs. They’ve long attracted ambitious workers looking for better jobs. So it’s no surprise that today 80% of the world’s economic activity comes from urban areas. But the jobs that will drive our economy tomorrow will be very different from the ones that fuelled the growth of cities in generations past….

Earlier this year, Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure were granted OFFICIAL accreditation by CESG. Ever since then, customers have been asking when Microsoft’s private cloud solutions would get the same treatment. Good news! Microsoft’s VPN stack, including Direct Access, is certified for use by UK Government offices for all OFFICIAL business. What certifications were…

Anyone who’s ever travelled on the London Underground and struggled to find a stop on the station map has an inkling of how complex the Tube really is. Now imagine how difficult it is to monitor conditions across all those lines and all those stops and perform essential maintenance before it affects service. For most…

When people talk about the pressures facing government offices, they often focus on a tiny piece of the puzzle: trimming this year’s budget, adopting this year’s new technology or meeting the citizen needs in the near term. The trouble with that approach is it ignores all those factors are intertwined and ongoing. New technologies, new…

Almost every parent today recognises the need to protect their children online as well as in the real world. But with young people growing up with technology seamlessly embedded into their lives, it can be difficult to know where to start. Coupled with the increasing opportunities for young people to access the internet, parenting in…

Do you have some questions about your organisation’s cloud journey? These answers might help. If I’m thinking of driving my public sector organisation towards using the cloud, where do I start? Select some small projects, identify low hanging fruit and do some trialling, generate proof of concepts. Start with a group of users who need…

Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office 365 now hold the UK Government’s recently launched “OFFICIAL” accreditation. What does that mean? It means that Microsoft Azure, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service cloud computing platform, and Office 365, Microsoft’s public cloud productivity suite for e-mail, collaboration and unified communications, are now accredited to hold or transact public sector data for…